Fatherly IQ: Survey Shows Young Parents Get as Much Insurance as They Can Afford

Whether it's health, life, auto, or home insurance, parents see the value in enrolling — if they can afford it.

Insurance can be complicated, made all the more when kids are in the picture. But it’s also all the more necessary, in order to safeguard the family against financial calamity when something unpredictable happens. This is likely why we found that most parents throughout the country have a pretty good handle on their insurance and are getting as much of it as they can afford.

In an effort to better understand this balancing act that families across the country are enacting, Fatherly surveyed 1000 parents from around the country. The results illustrate that while parents have bought into the importance of insurance, they are behind in their insurance goals, and that cost is the main thing preventing them from expanding their policies. Here’s what we learned about the insurance preferences of parents in 2019.

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Price Is the Number One Selling Point for Insurance

By far, the biggest factor among many that play a role in how parents choose an insurance provider is price. This was cited by 81.30 percent of respondents, eclipsing others (including service, products, and overall company mission).

The only thing the majority of parents seem to have taken care of when it comes to planning for the future and preparing for unexpected events down the road is in opening a savings account — 58 percent have done so. Sadly, most parents haven’t increased their life insurance; haven’t increased their home insurance; haven’t increased their auto insurance; haven’t drawn up a will, and certainly haven’t opened up a 529 College Savings Plan (only a paltry 18.5 percent of respondents had done so).

Nearly 87.60 percent of respondents said they had automobile insurance, the most out of more than a dozen different insurance types asked about in the survey. 76.60 had health insurance, while a little more than half also had home and life insurance. Although parenthood hasn’t necessarily spurred parents into increasing their insurance, most parents still have what they need to prepare for surprises down the road.

And by and large, people love their automobile insurance — 84 percent of respondents were very satisfied or satisfied with their car insurance, the best satisfaction metrics for any type of insurance. Health insurance came in second, with 72 percent expressing satisfaction or high satisfaction, but also suffered from the biggest level of dissatisfaction, at 7.6 percent.

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But it’s Health Insurance That’s Most Valued by Families

When it comes to the insurance that’s most important to families, 42.20 percent said they cared most about their health insurance. About 64 percent of those respondents were younger than 44. In a distant second place was life insurance, at 19.40 percent.

Parents Still Prefer to Make Decisions Based on Recommendations from Family and Friends

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The most popular sources of information for picking insurance, across all age groups, are family and friends. 60.10 percent of respondents said they look to their family and friends for recommendations when it came to choosing insurance, and 40.30 percent said it was the most important source information. Only 43.00 percent went out to the internet for help and only a little more than a quarter of parents said it was their preferred source of information, despite how many new resources are available on the web.

Millennial Parents Are Keeping Up With Life Insurance — If They Can Afford It

67.10 percent of parents who took the survey said they have life insurance, including 60 percent of parents under 34. About 73.60 percent had some type of home, property, or renter’s insurance policy, including 62 percent of parents under 34. And perhaps not so surprisingly, rates of active life insurance increased among respondents with more kids. Nearly 80 percent of respondents with life insurance and 78.67 percent with home insurance felt it was worth the cost.

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On the flip side, among those who didn’t have life insurance, 45.90 said it was simply because it cost too much. Same story for third of respondents without home insurance. Over half without life insurance hoped to purchase it in the future, while only 40.91 percent said the same thing with regards to home insurance.

Parents Are Generally Split On How We View Insurance Companies

Regardless of whether they had life insurance, respondents were largely split on whether they thought life insurance companies actually cared for them or not. Almost 40 percent believed companies were just viewing customers as “a means to make or lose money,” while 37 percent thought the companies truly did have their best interests in mind. Meanwhile, when it came to home insurance, 42.80 percent actually had a positive outlook on companies, versus 37.80 percent. For both questions, the cynical outlook was proportionally higher among lower income families.